Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Wednesday | Dec. 17 | Your News & Comments
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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
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Yo!
ReplyDeleteUMMM...
ReplyDeleteIt's still Tuesday
It's Wednesday SOMEwhere!
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.nashvillescene.com/pitw/2008/12/will_the_tennessean_cut_its_ho.php
ReplyDeleteReading the ol' Summary Plan Description for our 401(k) this morning, trying to fall back asleep:
ReplyDeleteAll amounts are immediately 100% vested and you are entitled to receive the full value of your account as follows:
• if you retire at any time ...
• if you become totally and permanently disabled...
• if you terminate employment because of your death.
As a player with words, that just struck me funny.
I mean, I've FELT like "calling in 'dead'", but evidently you can get your 401(k) money by "quitting 'dead'".
to POSTER 3:33PM 12/16/2008 (Yesterday)
ReplyDeleteRE: NJ Home Delivery.
Have you heard anything about P.C.F. taking over at the remaining New Jersey Papers?
This blog is dead. No one posting. boring, time to pack it up Jim. Good luck working with Vega. Already 9am on the East and no one has posted. In fact, 2 of the 3 posts are from YOU Jimbo!
ReplyDeleteJust wondering how many of the readers (mostly current Gannett employees or 'unfortunately' former Gannett employees, I'm sure) of Jim's blog subscribe to their paper or any newspaper. I am part of Gannett's early December massacre and, yet, I still subscribe to my paper. Getting it a half the normal subscription rate,though. (Thanks, Gannett, for that perk). I do look at our online site (why doesn't Gannett improve their sites????)a bit. Aren't those galleries captivating???? I'm sure I spend more time on Gannett Blog, though. Doubt I'd if I'd pay for the site should they ever charge for it, however. But then again I am sending some well deserved cash (subscription?) to Jim for his informative (and at time humorous) work. Thanks, again, Jim. Just some thoughts this Wednesday a.m. in the southeast.
ReplyDeleteThank you, 9:18 am!
ReplyDeleteThankyou, "This blog is dead" person. You have made up my mind for me. Jim, I'm sending you a ten dollar check in the mail today!
ReplyDeleteHope you continue to question Gannett's philosophy (read that: Sledgehammer) on employee relations.
Thanks.
Detroit newspapers end home delivery
ReplyDeleteThe Detroit Free Press and Detroit News are the first major U.S. papers to end their daily delivery service.
Asheville:
I am sure the Asheville paper will do the same after the presses shut down in a few weeks. It just does not seem cost effective to print the paper in Greenville and deliver it every day to Asheville. Just a waste.
As for cuts? I hear more are on the way before March.
This week in Westchester, we are having our free holiday lunches. What does everyone thing of this at Westchester and in the wider world?
ReplyDeleteIt's so obvious when a Corporate lackey rolls in. At least mask your agenda with clever corporate speak ...
ReplyDeleteThe next thing to track appears to be what news features, pages get cut from Gannett papers by year-end to fulfill its page reduction goals. And, how many will attack classified to get there as page goals seem high.
ReplyDeleteJim - Please don't "pack it in"!!! Those of us who are no longer employeed by GCI need the blog to be kept informed - actually those who ARE still employed need it too. This is the only place to get info. whether it's fact or fiction! I, myself, have been out job hunting and actually catching up on personal business that a 7-6 job doesn't give you a chance to do. And others are probably out shopping for the holidays. I love your site and have high hopes of being able to send some $$$'s once I'm employed again. Unfortunately, right now I have to eat and pay the rent! Cheers and best holiday wishes to all!
ReplyDeleteFifth Third Bank just cut its dividend to a penny, citing it needs to save at least $300 miillion...If Gannett is truly interested in the future, it should do likewise.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm a big mutual fund manager, there's no way I would buy Gannett stock for my portfolio, since management doesn't seem to get it. You can't pay out huge dividends without some revenue...
In the past year Gannett has dropped a lot of employees through buyouts or layoffs.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would like to know is what coverage has been lost because of our passing.
I do not believe the two beats I was expected to cover have not been reassigned.
I have been told that the reporter layoff doomed another beat at my newspaper.
So there are three topics of interest that will change from sharp focus to fuzzy, probably second day, coverage in the future. The editors thought these beats were important before, pressed hard for more and now have dropped them like something found in a New Jersey newspaper's rest room.
Did your beat die when you walked out the door, laid-off Gannett employees?
AARGH!
ReplyDeleteI do not believe the two beats I was expected to cover have been reassigned.
... [possessed by demons]...
This is to the person who asked how we (Westchester) feel about about our free holiday lunches... I think I speak for everybody when I say "Yummmm, free lunch!! That makes up for everything!"
ReplyDeleteFrom "Ruth's Blog," which covers the Indy Star, "Some readers tell me the Star's once-premiere features sections will continue to decline. The word is circulating that features is being drastically realigned, and one potential cutback is to entirely eliminate features sections on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays."
ReplyDeleteCincinnati is about to turn its separate feature section into two pages in the local section. They already did basically the same thing with business a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteI am a former Gannett employee who is now in competition with a Gannett paper. Best thing that could happen to us would be that they dropped home delivery to three days per week.
ReplyDeleteDes Moines alternative paper Cityview says that the Des Moines Register lost more than 700 subscriptions when cartoonist Brian Duffy was shown the door and more subscribers are dropping daily. Also, the Register is considering selling the rights to its longtime legendary bike ride across Iowa, Ragbrai.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dmcityview.com/skinny.shtml
Anyone know what will happen the the 150+ million dollar press Detroit just built in 2005. Sound like a waste to have it sit empty 4 days a week.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that more print consolidation will happen soon?
Do the carriers at the Detroit papers deliver alternate pubs like WSJ, NYT, or IBD? If so, what happens with those deliveries when they drop their dailies to 3 days a week?
ReplyDeleteHey 12:11 can you even read? They're still going to print seven days a week! They're just not going to deliver every day!
ReplyDeleteHeavenly days people are stupid.
Mr. Whig
ReplyDeleteYou are dating yourself!
I am older than dirt and when I was a pup, the expression was:
Heavenly day, Magee!
In response to the question yesterday about setting up home delivery during off days in Detroit...
ReplyDeleteLook, when I was in Bridgewater, we often had trouble with what we called ghost routes. A ghost route was a group of home delivery customers that the newspaper had no idea existed. The carrier had full control of the relationship with the customer, and charged single copy prices (or more) to the customers on the route.
The papers came from single copy theft or from the inside guy in the mailroom that picked up some waste papers every day on his way home. Ghost route carriers did very well as long as the person never called the newspaper for a missed or wet paper.
Every paper in the country has ghost carriers. This new format would actually legitimize the method... customers would be charged for the paper plus a delivery fee. Let's get creative here. Detroit should offer bulk sales to people willing to take on some of these readers who will pay $1 per day for the paper.
I, too, am surprised that the DNA didn't try to raise home delivery rates for those that really wanted a print product at their house by 6 a.m. err... sometime that morning.
John Stewart said at one point over the last week..."What's black and white and all over??
ReplyDelete"Newspapers"!!
Being on the production end of the industry (Press supervisor), I can tell you from personal experience that Stewarts jibe is more predictive than comedic. While I may not be as well versed as some of the individuals (journalists) that post on this blog,I can say with complete confidence that as an informed reader, the loss of printed dialogue , in any form, is a loss to the greater good. E-content on even the newspaper for which I am currently employed, is severely lacking.
While printing on paper is arguably as barbaric as cooking on an open fire pit (Don't we still do that?) My expectation in the next six months is to be both fruitfully un-employed and adding to the forclosure stastics in South West Florida.
Gannett would do well to drop the hammer and selloff it's print division to buyers who would be happy to accept 10-12% profits rather than serve two masters. Those being share holders and our readership.
1:24, or maybe by 5 p.m. on a snowy Wisconsin day.
ReplyDeleteWhig,
ReplyDeleteYes I can read.
I guess I misspoke about the building being empty 4 days a week. I should have said. How will Detroit cope with the increase in press downtime. Seeing as they will not be printing as many papers they printed before.
In addition, how would the worthless ABC organization catagorize the papers.
I say worthless because they provide zero value to a paper and are a dinosaur that should become extinct.
CHIN UP PEOPLE!
ReplyDeleteI was let go after 15 years of being with Gannett in a few different papers. December 3rd was my voluntary layoff date, as it was accepted. I am happy to announce that I found another full-time job doing the same thing (Graphic Design) with a local company, paying a very good wage.
Just wanted to let people know that there ARE opportunities out there, and when one door closes, another opens.
I hope this happens with everyone!
Cheers
Here's the worst of it: Not only are the Detroit papers cutting four days of deliveries, but they will continue to print those papers -- and only the subscribers, the loyal, paying public, will suffer.
ReplyDeleteElectronic reproductions are very cool, but if you cut services to paying customers, you will lose subscribers. No doubt.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
1:06, that's right, that's what Molly used to say.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm a fan of outdated stuff like network radio and newspapers, what can you say?
(but I'm not THAT old)
Anyway, you never can tell about modern printing facilities. They are probably busier than you think doing job printing, printing weeklies from a wide area, as well as doing advance printing: the whole Sunday paper isn't printed Saturday night. It's printed all week. You can be certain though that the Agency is out there hustling for print jobs, if they have half a brain.
(I know that's a big jump)
Happily Holidays Everyone!
ReplyDeleteIt is now 4 p.m. Eastern. Exactly.
ReplyDeleteIt is now 4 pm..
ReplyDeleteIt is now 4 pm
ReplyDeleteWhig,
ReplyDeleteI used to work in the Finance Dept. I know all about preruns and press runs for weeklies. You cannot tell me that reducing the printing of that many papers, will not increase open press time. So either consolidation will be done or their will be downtime. A press only makes money when it is running. So by having a press empty is just a waste.
Maybe Lansing or Port Huron, will move operations to Detroit.
Hello world!
ReplyDelete10:54: Yes, Features at the Indy Star is going down the tubes. They just got rid of several of their best reporters, including Whitney Smith who had FOUR beats: classical music, theater, dance and opera. They are "replacing" him with a tired old drudge who has been passed over TWICE for that position. (And they want him NOW?) The local arts groups are NOT happy. Then, the "social column" writer got riffed and they're replacing her .... like we need to read about the local hoity-toits and look at grinning photos of people staring at the camera. Use the new reporter to cover NEWS!!!!!
ReplyDeleteOur Publisher in westchester thinks free sandwiches at Christmas time makes up for his total lack of competence. I'm sorry but he just seems lost here. He just smiles and waves...smiles and waves...
ReplyDeleteWhich is worse? A publisher that smiles and waves or one that lies and puts a dagger in your back to save her own skin?
ReplyDeleteI heard from an insider in Phoenix that they were told, by their manager, to be prepared for another cut in early Feb. I don't know why they can't just do it once and end it.
ReplyDeleteI was cut earlier this month and felt immediate relief. While I loved my job, it was so nice to not have to think about it anymore.
Good luck to those who still wait to hear if they have a job.
adding to what 4:27 noted, the new "society" writer reportedly didn't ask for the job. it has to be one of the most thankless around -- horrible hours, so many ways to make mistakes . . . so few knowledgeable people around to catch them.
ReplyDeletelong, long ago, a "society" writer was conned into believing she had met sir and lady osis . . . of liverpool. nobody on the desk caught the joke, so the writer caught hell.
Sir osis still works for gannett.
ReplyDeleteI bumped into a former colleague today (laid off) and heard that some of the Michigan properties are looking at a 20 percent reduction in the next round of layoffs. Not sure if that will happen, but it seems plausible considering the fact that the Michigan economy is teetering on the verge of a depression. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
ReplyDeleteHuh, even the ASNE wants to dump newspapers.
ReplyDeleteWe are all way beyond ink on paper, and so the word “paper” would disappear from our name to reflect better what we do today and where we are going. Our new name, pending your approval, would be American Society of News Editors. This change maintains our valued brand, ASNE, and our logo, ASNE Leading America’s Newsrooms.
To assure a robust future, we also need to broaden our base of members. Thus, our proposal includes offering full membership to editors of news websites, including those without a print product, as well as leaders in journalism education and journalism foundations. More and more, news organizations are not defined by “daily.” Thus, this requirement would be removed from membership requirements.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/1208/ASNE_proposes_name_change_remove_newspapers.html?showall
4:57, I think there are plenty of Gannett publishers who smile and wave AND lie and put daggers in your back. These two things do not have to be mutually exclusive.
ReplyDeleteI know because it happened to me.
For any current current, however temporary, employees at the Asbury Park Press: How was the Christmas party this year?
ReplyDeleteDetroit carriers - according to the below link to a story on editorandpublisher.com you don't have a problem with the changes - is that true?
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/436d5x
www.mountainx.com reports:
ReplyDeleteFormer Citizen-Times editor files wrongful termination lawsuit
by Jason Sandford on 12/17/2008
In a $15 million wrongful termination lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Asheville Citizen-Times, former Executive Editor Susan Ihne claims the newspaper’s publisher bullied and harassed her.
For the rest of the story, go to:
http://www.mountainx.com/news/2008/former_citizen_times_editor_files_wrongful_termination_lawsuit
Jim,
ReplyDeleteGood work this week. As a former Idaho Statesman reporter, I'm wondering whether Boise was helped or hurt by the switch from Gannett to Knight Ridder and then McClatchy.
Wow! Everyone should read the story in Fobes' link about the Asheville editor's suit against Hammer and Gannett!
ReplyDeleteHer claims, sadly, could be made by dozens and dozens of good editors all across Gannett who were belittled and harrassed by abusive Publishers in Gannett.
It is why I fled in terror from this aweful company, a decision I have not regretted a single day. Although I still hate this company with a passion, it is good to know others are taking legal action to bring this house of cards to its knees!
I hope she wins millions.
8:22 pm: I've e-mailed Hammer and the paper's editor, asking for a comment. Haven't heard back yet, though.
ReplyDeleteHammer's alleged behavior mirrors that of more than a few of Gannett's senior managers, including one up-river from his former location.
ReplyDeleteIhne should have no problem finding people to substantiate her broader claim against Gannett as more than a few people are well aware of this company’s tolerance of assholes. And, even more so now given that so many have left the company and they no longer have any reason to remain silent.
8:22...
ReplyDeleteThey will come to their knees. Heck, they're buckling now. But it will not be the actions of former employees. They will kneel down themselves. They are crippled by appetite, avarice and ambition.
*sub appetite with hubris in last entry.
ReplyDeleteThis has got to make Hammer one of the most sued people in Gannett history. First an $18 million libel suit that is generally accepted as being over sloppy editing, and now a $15 million suit over allegedly sloppy management. Question is: How long will Gannett keep defending him.
ReplyDelete11:45, I think Cityview was way off the mark on the number of stops that could be attributed to Duffy's departure. There were few, if any, the last I heard. (Cityview's mole needs to develop some contacts outside of the newsroom. Cityview didn't report on the COE until months after it had been announced to the circulation staff.)
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised if DM tries to unload RAGBRAI, though.
I can believe that there were that many stops at the Register when Duffy was let go. He is an Iowa instituion. The paper printed a token 3 or 4 letters to the editor about losing him. We all know there were more. The keepers of the First Amendment..ha...they are just business people.
ReplyDeleteMr. Abbott actually has a pretty vaid point about one of the problems our industry faces-percieved lack of objectivity. CNW Marketing Research released a study about a month ago that found less than 30% of newspaper readers and non-readers felt their newspaper was fair and objective in its reporting (not including opinion and op-ed pages). This compares to nearly 80% that felt their newspaper was fair and objective in 1992, the year the study began. It also follows a report by CNW that tracked newspaper subscribers who had discontinued their subscription. While nearly a third said they preferred to get their news from the web...47% of individuals who stopped their subscription did so because they felt the newspaper was not fair, objective or accurate in news coverage.
ReplyDeleteIt is an issue that this blog ought to concentrate on--along with the severe economic difficulties, it's probably a bigger reason for the financial problems faced by the newspaper industry, including Gannett, than most folks in the newsroom would like to admit.
15 million for being yelled at and Harrased? BS.
ReplyDeleteWhatever happened to real newspapers? With the screaming and the yelling, and the booze in the top drawer? huh? What happened to people with spines?
all gone? Seems like it.
No wonder we can't publish a product that's worth a read.
Everyone is afraid, gutless, passionless.
And no, I'm not that Hammer guy.
I've had so-called managers yell and scream at me. I yelled and screamed back. and look, I still have a job..interestingly enough, I haven't seen any of those screaming scum suckers in years.
HMMM...
ReplyDelete"along with"
must be a New York Times (or former) employee!
The publisher in Westchester is not the biggest problem. It's the management that has remained untouched through all these layoffs. They remain and protect their favorites while the real workers are let go. Some of our best employees are gone but these sandwiches ought to boot spirits.
ReplyDeleteWho is Mr. Abbott, and what the hell are you talking about, 10:00?
ReplyDeleteYou're possibly quite right about perceived lack of objectivity, but I think the facts are that we're talking about a perception and not the reality. How does the industry and the journalist "prove" their innocence against a constant drumbeat from right-wing talk radio and television aimed at undermining the people's trust in media? You can see the effectiveness of the right-wing memes precisely in that data you cite.
ReplyDelete10:00 p.m.
ReplyDeleteIndeed.
I find the Gannett newspapers — boring.
Dismissed.
The weekly publications in my area are hip, edgy, trendy and frankly — where it's at.
And, their ad rates are 1/3 the price.
Gannett can "zone" their editions down past zip code to street address for all I care. It's a dead and broken strategy.
AND, the crap ink used by the Asbury Park Press gets all over the house. Everywhere the copy has been has smudges of black ink. I've gotten to the point that I don't even want it in the house.
Now, realize this: They are producing a product that people don't even want in their house.
PC version of previous post:
ReplyDeleteAbout the 15 million dollar lawsuit.
Grow a spine.
If boss yells, yell back.
Worked for me.
I felt the Asbury Park Press was objective in 1992, but, taken on the whole, it is not objective now.
ReplyDeleteAt APP, it's the right-wing extremists in charge. One of the last elected Republican governor's shills is a news editor, and the managing editor is hard-core Republican, all the way, all the time. The Cincy castoff, Hollis Towns, hasn't done anything yet but buy TVs, so no one knows about him.
But many former APP readers I know quit because of the failure to give real news about the Bush administration and his war, and our abject vendetta against Gov. Corzine. People notice this stuff.
I don't know what, if anything, to read into this, but I think the paths of Randy Hammer and our new Chief Corporate Journalist, Kate Marymont, crossed at least twice, in Springfield, Missouri, and in Florida.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if his alleged behavior in Asheville is a recent development, or if it has been tolerated for years by others elsewhere.
I worked with Ihne and I've read the lawsuit.
ReplyDeleteWho to root for, who to root for...
Pot, meet kettle.
11:50 PM Without knowing her I see your point. She did not become a Gannett EE without embracing the same tactics she is probably complaining about now. So if I were you I would just root for injuries:)
ReplyDeleteLike that Hammer has those all important President Rings. You hae to be pure evil to get one of those.
Randy Hammer is an ass of the highest order, but Gannett treats him like he's Mr. Fixit, dispatching him from newspaper to newspaper so he can demoralize staffs and drive out competent editors to make room for his overpaid buddies.
ReplyDeleteA poster raised a question about Cincy castoff and major empty-suit Towns doing nothing so far but buy TVs ---
ReplyDeleteFolks, just hope that's all he does... peruse the Internet and watch MSNBC on those flat-panel TVs all day.
Believe me, the less he does, the better off you will be.
Holy crap. Gutsy move, Susan. That will be a lawsuit to watch. She is a piece of work. And so is Hammer. Ultimate fighting at its best.
ReplyDeleteI read the lawsuit against Hammer et al, and to me, doesn't she ask for $45 million in damages? $15 mil in each of three actions plus a couple $10k charges?
ReplyDeleteNot being an unfrozen caveman lawyer, I might be reading that wrong. Also, where were the marketing people when "Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy and Kennedy" were discussing their firm's name?
Yes, Hammer is exactly how the lawsuit states. I worked with him several years ago. If you were not young, pretty and single your working life was made miserable to make room for more of the PYT's.
ReplyDeleteI think workplace bullying just may come to a screaching halt, thanks to the gutsy person who filed the lawsuit. Win or lose, every Gannett employee stands to benefit from Susan's actions since this will, no doubt, make Gannett take a good hard look at corporate culture.
ReplyDeleteChris Erwin, those rings are the ugliest things I've ever seen! Pure evil, indeed.
ReplyDelete